Salt Springs veteran served in support of Doolittle mission

Published: Tuesday, April 23, 2013 at 2:38 p.m.

Last Modified: Wednesday, April 24, 2013 at 4:57 p.m.

SALT SPRINGS — World War II veteran Paul Meunier was a signal man trained in semaphore flag signaling and Morse code on the aircraft carrier USS Hornet when it set to sea in support of the famous 1942 Doolittle air raid mission on Japan.

Meunier, 89, served in an observation tower high above the flight deck when 16 twin-engine B-25 bombers crews prepared to take off for a morale boosting first strike on Tokyo using aircraft tested for carrier launch only weeks before the mission.

Meunier said that before the Doolittle mission, only smaller, single-engine torpedo and fighter scout planes were launched from the Hornet.

"We could look down and see the (B-25) flight crews. We would say to each other, ‘Bet you five bucks he makes it,' as the planes took off. I generally figured out (prior to takeoff) they would make it," Meunier said. "One of the crewmen from a B-25 was a sergeant from Milwaukee. I let him have my bunk because it was more comfortable than the first one he was assigned. I knew the ship like the back of my hand and could find another.

"We heard the airmen arguing about what they would have to leave behind to lighten their planes and extend their range," Meunier added. "Fuel usage and range were critical to the mission. We saw each plane getting extra five gallon cans of gas on the flight deck just before take-off."

Meunier and his wife of 65 years, Juanita, have lived in a home on Lake George in northeast Marion County for 26 years. He is a native of Rosedale, N.Y., and was a Sea Scout as a youth. He learned the fundamentals of seamanship on a 34-foot sloop the group sailed across Lake Michigan.

Meunier enlisted in the Navy on Aug. 17, 1941, "because of Hitler," and soon was sent to the Great Lakes Naval Training Center near Chicago for boot camp. After additional training as a signal man he was assigned to meet "the new carrier" USS Hornet at the dock at Newport News near Norfolk, Va.

"A lot of the sailors in the outfit were from landlocked states and had never seen anything like an aircraft carrier," Meunier said. "After the Hornet went out to sea on several trials, she then loaded up two B-25s to see if they could take off before we sailed on the mission."

The test was successful and the USS Hornet CV-8 set out April 2, 1942, just four months after the Pearl Harbor attack, for the "first U.S. air raid to strike the Japanese islands in World War II," according to the website www.uss-hornet.org.

"We sailed down the East Coast and went through the Panama Canal. The crew was upset when there was no liberty in Panama," Meunier said.

The ship continued to the West Coast, past San Diego and San Francisco and under the Golden Gate Bridge on the way to Alameda Naval Air Station to load 16 B-25s, Meunier said.

"The orders (for the Doolittle raid mission) were (air) dropped to us when the ship was about 60 miles out to sea," Meunier said.

The details for the mission included launching the bombers about 400 miles from Japan because of the range capabilities of the aircraft. The aircraft carrier was escorted by six cruisers, Meunier said.

"We were about 600 miles away from Japan when we spotted a Japanese boat, which might have been a fishing boat. The (USS) Nashville fired 5-inch guns at the boat," Meunier said.

Meunier said although they were an additional 200 miles away from their target location, the officers decided to take off because of concern the Japanese boat might have sent messages about the carrier and the bombers aboard.

The website indicates that on April 18, 1942, "all 16 planes took off in about an hour."

After the bombing run, which caused "little damage" itself, American morale began to "soar" and Japanese Admiral Yamamoto was "provoked into a hastily organized strike against Midway Island that resulted in the loss of four fleet carriers, many sailors and a number of highly trained aircrews," the website states. Following the raid, 15 of the 16 planes headed for China. One was very low on fuel and aimed for Russia, according to the site. Three aircrew members were killed trying to land in China and eight were captured, with three executed and one succumbing to disease

"Most of the B-25 crews that came down in China made it to safety with the help of Chinese civilians," the website notes.

Following the mission, Meunier served in the Pacific at Palmyra and Tulagi and completed his WWII service in September 1945. He went to college, where he met Juanita, and then pursued a career in the financial and cost analysis profession.

Meunier's family members, including his daughters Nancy Kane of Chicago and Barbara Schnizlein of Saint Paul, Minn., attended the 2012 USS Hornet reunion.

"I believe there were three of the original CV-8 crew members from World War II service at the reunion this year," Kane said.

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